Ralph Fiennes Details His Role in How The King’s Man Came to Be

Ralph Fiennes is no stranger to huge franchise filmmaking, but he took time out of his first-ever trip to a major comic book convention to chat with us about his character in The King’s Man, what motivates him, and what drew him to the role. In footage screened at New York Comic Con, Fiennes’s character is seen recruiting his son to the infamous tailor’s shop from Kingsman amid the chaos of the first World War. The mission he is about to undertake will have ramifications for generations to come, and while we won’t see Colin Firth in this film, audiences will certainly get a sense of how the organization will have shaped him.

Fiennes spoke with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis at New York Comic Con last weekend, and shared some details on how he came to be involved with the franchise. You can check the video out above.

“The Kingsman is created in this film; there’s no Kingsman before this film. This is the story of how Kingsman gets started, so my character starts it, creates it,” Fiennes explained. “[I’m] reluctantly recruiting [my son] because I’m an overprotective father who for reasons that will become apparent in the film doesn’t want his son anywhere near combat. His son’s growing up and is full of sense of duty and wanting to prove himself as a soldier and as a man of honor, so there’s a father/son conflict. But my character tries to give him another perspective about how you fight the forces of evil; it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re signing up to be slaughtered in the trenches. I try to give him another perspective, which is sort of about intelligence work and spying, how you can do more damage to the enemy by the right intelligence/undercover work than all-out war.”

The King’s Man will serve as a prequel to Vaughn’s two other Kingsman movies, roughly set during the time of World War I. Despite being a prequel, Vaughn has previously confirmed there will be a fourth film in the franchise set after the events of Kingsman: The Colden Circle.

“The end of this movie [Golden Circle], if you think about it: you have Eggsy’s definitely going to go on a new journey,” Vaughn said earlier this year. “Galahad, or Harry Hart’s going on a new journey. Tequila’s going on a new journey. Jeff’s (Bridges) going on a new journey, Halle (Berry), the new agent Whiskey, is. The next movie is what happens to these characters. They’re definitely not going to be doing what you’ve seen them do before.”

Taron Egerton (Eggsy) confirmed he’ll be back in the franchise at some point, just not in The King’s Man — something completely understandable after seeing the trailer.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t be in Kingsman ever again,” Egerton previously confirmed. “I was with Matthew [Vaughn] as little as a few days ago, we’re still very much in business together, but his next journey in that world doesn’t involve me. His idea for the new one is incredibly exciting. I’m sad that I won’t be on that journey with him but it’s not the last you’ve seen of Eggsy.”

The King’s Man stars Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Rhys Ifans, Gemma Arterton, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Djimon Hounsou, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stanley Tucci, Alison Steadman, Robert Aramayo, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Joel Basman. It’s Matthew Vaughn’s third Kingsman directing gig from a script he wrote with Karl Gajdusek.

The King’s Man is set for release on February 14, 2020.

Are you excited to return to the world of Kingsman in The King’s Man? Sound off in the comments.